Some uncertainty attaches to the date, as well as to several other circumstances stated in this narrative. It is known that a certain Aegidius, whose name at least (Αιyι‰ς, from αiξ or aiytç) is suggestive of a Greek origin, held an abbacy in Provence in the 6th century, and, at the instance of Bishop Caesarius, undertook, in 514, a mission to Pope Symmachus on a question relating to certain rivalries between the sees of Arles and Vienne (Labbe, Coηc., v. 439-40, ed. 1728); but the modern hagiologists, following the earliest Acta, which assign the legend to the period of a Catholic Visigothic king “Flavius” (Wamba or Ervigius), incline to distinguish the saint from the earlier abbot of the same name, and to fix the date of the former about the end of the 7th century. Of the existence of an abbey under the advocacy of St Giles towards the end of the 9th century there can be no question (Ménard, Hist, de Nismes}; while Benjamin of Tudela makes special mention of the crowds of foreigners from all countries who in his time (1160) frequented that shrine, which is situated on the Petit-Rhône, about 12 miles westward of Arles. In the 11th and following centuries the cultus of the saint, who came to be regarded as the special patron of lepers, beggars, and cripples, spread very extensively over Europe, especially in England, Scotland, France, Germany, and Poland. The church of St Giles, Cripplegate, London, was built about 1090, while the hospital for lepers at St Giles-in-the-Fields was founded by Queen Matilda in 1117. In England alone there are 146 churches dedicated to this saint; and they occur in every county except in those of Westmoreland and Cumberland (Parker, Calendar of the Anglican Church'). In Edinburgh the church of St Giles (c. 1359) could boast the possession of an arm-bone of its patron. Representations of St Giles are very frequently met with in early French and German art, but are much less common in Italy and Spain (Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, pp. 768-770).